Jazz vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer
vs. 
Utah Jazz (18-13, 6-9 road) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (17-14, 8-7 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click Here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 7:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 106.8 (18th), Jazz – 108.0 (12nd)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 104.5 (8th), Jazz – 105.3 (10th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.1 (20th), Jazz – 92.5 (16th)
View from the enemy: Salt City Hoops
It’s still December. There are 51 games yet to be played. But… this feels like a huge game. I guess when you haven’t really had a lot of big ones, or really ANY big ones, a game against a division rival that you happen to be a game behind for the eighth playoff spot feels big.
No, it’s not all over if OKC comes up short. And it’s not time to throw things are curse the sky. But winning a fifth straight and beating the Jazz – a team that the Thunder will likely battle all year for that last spot – would be rather large. The fact the game is at home on New Year’s Eve adds to the excitement, but it could be played on a Wednesday morning and I’d be psyched.
The Jazz coming in: Utah has won three of its last five, with wins over Charlotte, Philly and Minnesota with losses at Orlando and Miami. The Jazz are wrapping up a stretch where they’ve played seven of eight opponents on the road, including a game last night, so they may be a little weary. Utah is always good at home (12-4) but they’re just 6-9 away from Salt Lake.
THE MATCHUPS
Deron Williams vs. Russell Westbrook. That’s big matchup No. 1. Carlos Boozer vs. Jeff Green. And that’s big matchup No. 2. Green will almost certainly struggle to contain the bruising Boozer, but with the way Westbrook has been playing, I think he’ll be able to counter Williams’ production. The team that gets the best of these two matchups will likely win. Westbrook stymied Williams in the last meeting, holding him to just 10 points on 5-14 shooting and nine assists.
C.J. Miles and Andrei Kirilenko will tag team to defend Kevin Durant tonight, with Ronnie Brewer likely getting a little time too. Kirilenko used to be an absolute nightmare for KD, but Kirilenko isn’t healthy and doesn’t play a lot of minutes and KD lit Utah up for 28 on 11-22 shooting last time.
The Thunder bench will play a big role again, as Utah has Paul Millsap and rookie Wesley Matthews anchoring theirs. But again, it should be a Thunder advantage with Eric Maynor (GOING AGAINST HIS OLD TEAM!1!!), Serge Ibaka, Nick Collison and James Harden. The Thunder’s nine-man rotation is just really strong.
Again, big game for lots of reasons. But if you need one parting shot to get you psyched for this one, consider this – The NBA: Where Mehmet Okur vs. Nenad Krstic happens.
Tip at 7:00 CST. Go New Year.
Our offense didn’t really bog down until the end when we started trying to isolate Durant and ending up wasting 20 seconds on the clock when he got hedged too far out or had the ball denied.
We were getting solid looks at the basket most of the game and getting to the line a lot (even if we were bricking them). Stick with the normal offense Brooks..
5 wins in a row! what in the hell
agreed, we need Westbrook/Maynor whoever is the best at penetrating with the ball at the end. They drive to the hoop and they decide to either pull up, go in for a layup, or kick it out.
2 wins over Utah now. Could prove Big at the End
@justin
I was speaking mostly of offense there. I think our overall lack of offensive punch and cohesion is why we bog down at the end. Our go-to play isn’t much of a play because we have only one dependable shooter/scorer.
@Keith
Agreed.. too bad James Harden can’t be that guy. Didn’t really notice but did Brooks keep Thabo on the court at the end on the offensive possessions?
yeah he was the one inbounding the ball
That’s pretty sad then.. shows how much confidence Brooks has in Harden right now.
I guess that’s why sometime people say, “It’s better to be lucky than good!?”…
Overally it’s a bad game and the Thunder was lucky to win this one… Some good plays but many bad plays both offense and defense. However, it’s lucky that Jazz didn’t make a 3 pts shot at all. And, what’s up with the Thunder’s FTs? 50%!? Wow…
Really lucky… The young Thunder players were kind of like lost in the last 4 straight wins but they were really lucky to have a blue collar guy like Collison to clean up the mess at the end. He made the stop, a few big buckets and the last 2 FTs… Westbrook was 3 out of 12 for the fg and 2 out of 6 for the fts… Green hasn’t been consitant, played about 27 mins and had 6 TOs… Durant was, well, just like Durant as usual. Provided the scoring that Thunder really need because Thunder’s offense is nothing to brag about. So, he’s pretty much the only target to the opposite teams and I think that’s why he always has so many TOs. Lucky Collison came to rescue…
I’m sorry but this is an awful lot of complaining for our 5th straight win that also evened us up for a playoff spot. Enjoy it! Save the complaints for tomorrow.
Kevin Durant has a huge December. 29.7ppg on 49.3%FG, 38.6%3PT, 86%FT.
50/40/90 is pretty much the highest mark of an efficient scorer (i.e. Steve Nash). The fact that KD was at that with the volume of shots he’s taking is amazing. If he keeps that production up and the Thunder make the playoffs he might get a couple MVP votes.
Kevin Durant had another good game, we played solid defense for the most part, and even with us missing so many free throws, we made the 2 that ended up winning us the game…
Jeff Green had a slightly better December, too. Of course Serge was better in December, so was Krstic. James Harden regressed. Nick Collison much better.
Russ is interesting. He shot 35% (!) in December compared to 43% in November.. but he had 7.5 assists to 2.5 turnovers in December compared to 6.1 to 3.8 in November.
If you combine his shooting in November with his play making in December you get a very excellent player..
Seriously… This is one of the most exciting Thunder games I have watched. Because it took the last 2 free throws to lead by one, and then got a big stop (lucky no call) to win the game by 1… That was great, because there were so many heartbreaker last season… Wasn’t pretty but a win is a win at the end… =_=”
By the way, “Happy New Year” everyone, and hopefully there will be more great games from the Thunder…
I don’t think the no call on Price was that bad.. you don’t call that on the home team. Maybe if Deron Williams was shooting or Kobe, etc. Ronnie Price is not going to get that call.
The Millsap foul was the weird one.
Sam Dalembert looks good on TV right now he has like seven blocks.
damn we shot 50% from the ft line and had 19 turnovers……..
Yeah the FT’s killed it.. I thought our offense wasn’t that bad most of the game, we shot over 47% from the field which is really good against a good Utah defense. If we make our usual 80% free throws.. we’re at 95 points instead of 87, pretty decent offensive output. The poor FT shooting shouldn’t be a long term problem.
Hey guys. Thanks for being here. The Recap is up. Happy New Year.